The Yellow Ribbon
by Laree
Summary: * Yaoi-MitKo* After several years away in prison, Mitsui is finally getting out. But would Kogure still want him?


Laree's Slam Dunk Fanfiction   
  
  
  
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The Yellow Ribbon   
Song By: Johnny Vegas   
I'm coming home, I've done my time   
And I have to know what is or isn't mine.   
If you received my letter, telling you I'd soon be free   
Then you'd know just what to do,   
If you still want me.   
If you still want me.   
The man sat hunched in his seat by the back of the bus, studiously   
ignoring the cheerful chattering of the people around him. He ran his   
hand over his recently cropped head of hair, savoring the feeling of the   
short, silky strands against his skin. He hadn't felt this amazingly   
clean, this amazingly liberated since he had last been with his love. His   
Kiminobu...   
Smiling softly, he took out a small picture, a bit worse for wear, what   
with all the times that he had handled it, and gently brushed his   
fingertips against the face of the brown haired boy smiling out at him   
from it. It would be good to see him again. To touch him again. The   
man's face suddenly darkened when he remembered that he wasn't even sure   
if he would be able to do that...He wasn't even sure if Kiminobu would   
even want to see him again.   
That thought hurt .   
" Who's that?" He was brought out of his reverie by the inquiry of a   
young man, one roughly around his age, with the strangest, gravity defying   
hairstyle that he had ever seen. He also looked vaguely familiar but he   
couldn't, for the life of him, figure out why this was so. " Your   
brother, or something?"   
Mitsui Hisashi shrugged. " Or something..."   
The guy seated beside him chuckled as though he had said the funniest   
thing in the world. " You're not much of a talker, are you? You remind   
of one of my friends. But then again, some people get freaked out when   
somebody they don't know tries to start a conversation with them in the   
bus...Maybe you're that type? Oh, well...I didn't mean to scare yah or   
anything...It's just that you've been awfully quiet the whole trip and I   
was getting sorta bored. Just say the word, and I'll shut up. Hiro-kun   
says it a bad habit of mine, always talking to strangers. He says that he   
doesn't know how I managed to survive my childhood years, the way that I'm   
always willing to talk to just about anybody. He thinks it's amazing that   
I didn't get myself kidnapped by hentai pedophiles back then..."   
Despite of himself, Mitsui found a small smile tugging at his lips. There   
was something about this guy...Something that made you immediately take to   
him.   
Seeing that the ice had been broken, the boy's grin widened, and he held   
out his hand to be shaken. " Sendo Akira."   
" Mitsui Hisashi. Nice to meet you."   
" Mitsui Hisashi, huh? Sounds familiar. Did you use to play basketball,   
or something?"   
" Yup. For Shohoku."   
" Then we've met each other before." Sendo pointed out, tipping his head   
to the side and examining the guy beside him thoughtfully. That was why   
he had looked so familiar! He looked sort of different now, a lot thinner   
and a little run down, but there was still no doubt that this was the guy   
who had helped to bring Shohoku to the top with his beautiful three   
pointers. " Don't you remember me? Ryonan's ace, Porcupine head?   
Smiley, as Sakuragi used to call me. Actually, he still does."   
" Oh." Mitsui squirmed uncomfortably in his seat. He hadn't counted on   
bumping into anyone that he had know from back then in the bus and he   
didn't really think he was ready to face anyone yet. Anyone that was not   
Kiminobu..." That's right. How have you been then, Sendo."   
" Good. Good. Still with my adorable Hiro-kun. Still getting pounded on   
the head daily by a frying pan, you won't believe how many we've gone   
through! I'm working for the Kanagawa Bank now. I'm taking care of their   
computer infrastructure."   
" You didn't pursue a career in basketball?" Mitsui asked, slightly   
surprised. When he thought of the name Sendo Akira, he remembered an   
extremely talented young man who he had been certain would be able to make   
it into the NBA someday.   
Sendo shook his head. " Nah. I never considered basketball a career move   
for me. It's fun, but...Well, you know. It stops being fun when it   
becomes all business. And I've always been sort of a computer geek, hard   
as that may be for you to believe, so I chose a career with computers.   
Rukawa seems to be doing great though, have you been following his career?   
I always knew that kid would make it to the top. The very first time   
that I saw him play, I knew. He had that something, you know. Something   
that made a player great. as for Sakuragi, can you believe that that   
idiot actually makes a great coach? He's coaching for that new High   
School now, the one that was established just recently, and they actually   
made it to the final four! A great achievement for a team that's only   
been around for two years. He swears that they'll make it all the way to   
the IH this year and for some reason, I believe him..."   
Mitsui chuckled. " Sakuragi's always managed to do what he promises.   
Remember all that shit about being a basketball genius? He actually   
managed to become one by the time that he started college. It was   
amazing."   
" He's the genius, all right." Sendo agreed with a small laugh. " Even   
Rukawa's starting to admit it...Hell, the two of them have gotten really   
close, if you know what I mean. Rukawa even sits in on some of   
Hanamichi's coaching sessions and gives a few tips. But how about you,   
then? How have you been doing? It seems as though you just disappeared   
right after College. The guy in the picture, that's Kogure, right? I   
remember it now. The two of you used to go out together. You were really   
sweet on each other back then..."   
" Back then..." Mitsui mumbled.   
" Not anymore then, huh?" Sendo smiled sympathetically. There had been a   
short period back in College when he and Koshino had taken a break from   
each other. He could remember how it felt to be separated from someone   
that you loved, and it wasn't a very nice feeling at all..." The two of   
you have broken up?"   
" Not exactly broken up. More like, separated under unfortunate   
circumstances...I still don't even know if he'll want me back..."   
"Why. What were the ' unfortunate circumstances '?" Sendo inquired, as   
usual, not thinking twice about poking into other people's business.   
Nobody had ever taken offense to it so he didn't think Mitsui would   
mind..." What happened? Did you cheat on him?"   
Mitsui was offended. As if he would ever do anything like that to his   
Min-kun. " I would never cheat on him, Sendo! It was nothing like that.   
But it was my own, stupid fault...If I hadn't been so stupid, then   
maybe..." Mitsui let out a heavy sigh as he stared out of the bus window,   
watching the scenery passing by. " You really wanna know why I   
disappeared right after College, Sendo?"   
" Yeah. I do. I had a feeling that the Shohoku guys knew what was up   
with you. They wouldn't say anything about it though..."   
' Yeah. Those guys are great. They didn't want to cause me anymore grief   
than I already had... But, anyways. I guess I should tell you. It's all   
gonna come out again, sooner or later. I guess it's better for you to   
hear the truth from me than to get some twisted version of the whole story   
from someone else, right?"   
" Right."   
" So here it goes..." Mitsui took a deep breath before going on with his   
story...   
~**~   
" I think you know about me taking two years off from basketball before I   
started playing with Shohoku again on my third,   
and final year of High School. I don't think you know the real reason   
behind that long hiatus, though. Most of the people   
think that it's because of the injury that I sustained in my first year at   
Shohoku. That's a part of it, I guess you can   
say."   
" It really got to me, that injury. You can't know how difficult it is for   
a guy who knows that he is at the top of his game to   
be injured, to be worthless, sitting by the side lines day after day,   
watching your team lose games when you knew that   
you could have led them to a win if you could have just been there. If you   
had just been able to help...It really eats away   
at you. So I got restless. I tried to play, even though I knew that my   
knee was still bad, and managed to injure myself   
again. I was devastated. All hope of me returning to my former condition   
left me, and after weeks and weeks of no   
improvement, I just gave up. I just didn't want to try anymore. I decided   
that I hated basketball, and anyone else who,   
unlike me, were capable of playing it, and since I was miserable, I would   
bloody well do my best to make everyone else's   
lives miserable too."   
" That was why I started hanging out with Tetsuo and his gang. A bad   
crowd, I guess you can say, and not really the   
best companions for an impressionable young freshman. But they became my   
friends, and they stuck by me through   
that hard time, not like some of the hangers on that I acquired during my   
basketball playing days, and I was grateful to   
them."   
" They taught me a lot of things, not all good, but, well...They were my   
friends so I just went along with anything that   
they wanted to do. I've never really had that strong a character, so it   
was really rather easy for them to get me to do   
what they wanted. Well, throughout that time, I managed to make quite a   
few enemies, needless to say. But I didn't   
care about them, because as far as I was concerned, my gang would always   
be there to watch out for me..."   
" On my final year in Shohoku, I had this conflict going with Miyagi   
Ryota, you know him, don't you, Sendo? The Point   
Guard? He was great, wasn't he? So I decided to teach him a lesson, and me   
and the old gang went to have a little fun   
with him and the rest of the basketball club inside the gym. Kogure was   
there, though, and so was Akagi, and they   
managed to bring me to my senses and made me realize that my life was   
going rapidly nowhere at the moment, so when   
Anzai-sensei came, I went down on my knees and begged, I begged, knowing   
that this might be my last chance of   
straightening myself out, to be accepted in the team once more."   
" He agreed. I buckled down, stopped all my bad habits and became the   
model player that I had once been. After a   
while, Kogure and I started going out. You couldn't believe how happy I   
was back then. It finally looked as though I had   
my life back on track. Shohoku was doing better than it ever had in the   
Inter High tournament, I had real friends who   
cared about me, even after everything that I had done to hurt them in the   
past, I had a lovely boyfriend who meant more   
to me than anything else in this world, and it looked as though I would be   
able to swing it to College after all. I hadn't   
thought I'd be able to enter College, what with my incredibly bad academic   
record, but Kanagawa University offered me   
an Athletics scholarship and of course, I wasn't stupid enough to say no   
to something like that!"   
" So I spent a few years at Kanagawa University. I did pretty well, with   
Kogure's help. The University team was great,   
how could it not be, with players like Fujima and Akagi and later on,   
Sakuragi and Rukawa? So I graduated with a degree   
at Human Resources Management, I got myself a job in my dad's company, and   
it sure looked as though I was set for   
life. I had forgotten about my old enemies from my gangster days, but they   
sure as hell hadn't forgotten about me."   
" One of the gangs that I had gone up against back then hadn't forgotten   
what I'd done to them, and they wanted   
revenge. One day, while I was on my way home, they cornered me, and I   
tried to get them to see that those days were   
behind me, but they would listen. So we fought. One of the guys had a   
knife, and out of self protection, I wrestled it   
away from him, and I stabbed him. Only out of self protection. But he   
died, because of me."   
" Everything was covered up by my father, of course. He's always been   
rather influential around Kanagawa, but even he   
couldn't do anything about the ruling of the judge. I had to go to a   
correctional institution for three years...Each day of   
the trial hearing, Kogure was there, each day he just watched, not saying   
a word to me, and I had to go to prison without   
ever knowing whether he still loved me or not. He sent me letters and   
things while I was still there, but they were always   
impersonal. Never saying anything much about himself and what was going on   
with him in his life, never saying anything   
about where the two of us stood..."   
" So until now, three years later, when I finally got out of there, I   
still don't know. But in a few minutes I should find   
out...Cos when I knew for sure that I was about to get out of there, I   
wrote him a letter. There's this really big oak tree   
near his house right near the bend of road where this bus will pass, so I   
told him..."   
Tie a yellow ribbon   
Round the old, oak tree   
It's been three long years   
Do you still want me?   
If I don't see a yellow ribbon   
round the old oak tree   
I'll stay on the bus, forget about us   
Put the blame on me   
If I don't see a yellow ribbon   
Round the old, oak tree   
~**~   
" So what you're saying is, that if you see a ribbon tied to the tree,   
then that means that everything will be all right and   
Kogure still wants you..." Sendo mumbled thoughtfully, enthralled by the   
story. " But if you don't-"   
" Then that means that he want's nothing more to do with me. I couldn't   
blame him, if that was the case. Who would   
want an ex-convict for a boyfriend, anyways?"   
" Ne, Mitsui-san. You shouldn't think that way. Positive thoughts. That's   
what I always say!" But Sendo sounded a   
little preoccupied. He was too busy craning his neck out of the open bus   
window, a very dangerous thing to do, trying to   
catch a view of the tree that Mitsui had spoken of..." I don't see the   
bloody tree, goddam it..."   
" Tree? Hell, Sendo, have you gone blind? The whole street is lined with   
trees!" The guy seated right behind the two of   
them pointed out.   
" Not just any tree, Ikegami-san." And before Mitsui could stop him,   
blabber mouth Sendo had told his former team mate   
everything that Mitsui has just relayed to him. Pretty soon, the whole bus   
was buzzing with his story, and were all avidly   
looking out of the window, searching for any signs of the tree where the   
indication would be.   
Mitsui sighed. Oh well. He hadn't meant for this to get out or anything   
but, misery loved company, didn't it? He could   
take consolation in the sympathy of the rest of the people in the bus if   
he didn't see what he was hoping to...   
" Here we go, people!" Exclaimed the bus driver as they came up towards   
the bend. Mitsui's face reddened visibly.   
God. Even the bus driver was in on it. He didn't like the idea of everyone   
knowing all about his sordid past but he took   
solace in the support of the people around him. He held in his breath   
apprehensively as they came towards the bend.   
Beside him, Sendo had his fingers crossed and Ikegami had a hand clasped   
about his shoulder.   
At the last moment, he closed his eyes, not able to bear the thought of   
what he might not see when the bus rounded the   
bend...   
Bus driver, please look for me   
'Cos I couldn't bear to see what I might see   
I'm really still in prison   
And my love he holds the key   
A simple yellow ribbon's all I need to set me free   
I wrote and told him please   
" Oh, god." Gasped Sendo.   
Mitsui squeezed his eyes shut tighter, knowing already, from Sendo's   
reaction, what he would see. Still, taking a deep   
breath, he opened his eyes slowly, needing confirmation. Needing to know   
once and for all how Kogure felt about him   
after everything. He blinked. Then he blinked again.   
He couldn't believe what he was seeing. The branches of the oak tree were   
completely covered with masses, and   
masses of yellow ribbons tied around them, billowing gently in the summer   
breeze like banners welcoming him home.   
And on top of it all, standing under that tree was the person who had kept   
Mitsui's hope up through the three difficult   
years. Kiminobu. He still wanted him...   
Now the whole damn bus is cheering   
And I can't believe I see   
A hundred yellow ribbons   
Round the old, old oak tree.   
" What are you waiting for, you idiot?" Sendo demanded, as he remained in   
his seat, still quite stunned. The bus had   
rolled to a stop right before the tree. The tall, spiky haired man gave   
him a none too gentle shove towards the front of   
the bus. " Get up and go to him. Geez. The two of you have a lot of   
catching up to do after three years!"   
He didn't need any more prompting. He got up shakily to his feet and   
shouldered his gym bag. The people around him   
were cheering and letting out good natured wolf whistles. They called out   
their well wishes as he hurried down the aisle   
of the bus, jumped down from it and right into Kogure's arms. Right where   
he belonged.   
" You still want me..." Mitsui whispered hoarsely, as he blinked back   
tears of joy, which were immediately kissed away   
by the slightly shorter young man. " After everything...You still want   
me..."   
" Of course I do, you idiot..." Kogure Kiminobu told him. He let out a   
contented little sigh as he snuggled closer to the   
man that he had waited for all of these years. " Was there ever any doubt   
of that?"   
~**~ Owari ~**~ 


End file.
